Long-term exposure to air pollution may be linked to heart
attacks and strokes by speeding up atherosclerosis, or "hardening of the
arteries," according to a University of Michigan public health researcher
and colleagues from across the U.S.
Sara Adar, the John Searle Assistant Professor of
Epidemiology at the U-M School of Public Health, and Joel Kaufman, professor of
environmental and occupational health sciences and medicine at the University
of Washington, led the study that found that higher concentrations of fine
particulate air pollution (PM2.5) were linked to a faster thickening of the
inner two layers of the common carotid artery—an important blood vessel that
provides blood to the head, neck and brain.